(VIENTIANE, Laos) — President Barack Obama on Monday became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot in the isolated Southeast Asian nation of Laos, opening a three-day visit meant to rebuild trust and close a dark chapter in the shared history between the two countries.

Obama exited the main door of Air Force One, clutching a black umbrella in the evening rain in Vientiane, the capital, before the motorcade whisked him away.

Obama is one of several world leaders coming to the country of nearly 7 million people, where the one-party communist state tightly controls public expression but is using its moment in the spotlight as host of the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to open up to outsiders.

The visit comes during what is probably Obama’s final trip as president to Southeast Asia, a region that has enjoyed intense attention from the U.S. during his tenure. Obama’s frequent visits to oft-ignored corners of the Asia Pacific have been central to his strategy for countering China’s growing dominance in the region. By bolstering diplomatic ties in Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar, the Obama administration has declared it wants to compete for influence and market access in China’s backyard.

In Laos, Obama will wrestle with the ghosts of past U.S. policies.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. rained bombs on Laotian villages and the countryside as America’s war with Vietnam spilled across the border. The Laotian government estimates that more than 2 million tons of ordnance were released during more than 500,000 missions — one bomb every eight minutes for nine years.

An estimated 80 million cluster bombs did not explode, leaving tennis ball-sized “bombies” littering the impoverished countryside to wound and kill unsuspecting people.

Obama planned to acknowledge this history and its damaging effect on Laos’ development, tourism and agriculture. He is expected to announce additional aid to clean up unexploded ordnance, while the Laotian government is expected to offer help in accounting for missing and dead U.S. service members.

Obama said Monday in China, before he departed for Laos, that diplomatic work on war legacy issues will be “a show of good faith on the part of the country and a way for us to move into a next phase of a relationship.”

He cited Vietnam as the model. Aides said Obama’s visit will probably echo a stop in Hanoi, Vietnam, in May, when the president declared he was “mindful of the past, mindful of our difficult history, but focused on the future.”

In both countries, Obama benefits from not carrying baggage that might have complicated his message. Too young to have served in the Vietnam war, Obama serves as a generational page turner — eager to speak directly to those too young to remember the troubled past.

In Laos, as he has across Southeast Asia, he’ll hold a town-hall-style event for young people. The White House said he’ll encourage Laos’ slow political opening and budding entrepreneurial culture.

Obama will be speaking to people like 33-year-old Anysay Keola, who remembers his mother’s stories of running and hiding from the bombs and of memorizing a phrase roughly translating to: “The U.S. dropped the bomb on us.”

But Keola, an entrepreneur and filmmaker and part of Vientiane’s growing creative class, also grew up on American music and fashion. The war’s ill will faded long ago, and his friends are excited about Obama’s arrival but not necessarily for political reasons.

“He is perceived as like a celebrity,” Keola said. “It’s just on the surface: ‘Ooh, Obama’s coming. Ooh, big plane.’ Or things like that. Or his Cadillac car is here. Those are the things that people share and talk about.”

While the U.S. is known as a rich country with an outsized cultural influence, China, by contrast, is seen as the huge neighbor helping to spur this small nation’s robust growth. Massive Vientiane construction sites come adorned with Mandarin script. China has committed to financing a $7 billion high-speed railroad to bisect the country.

Though Laos’ new president, Bounnhang Vorachit, is seen as edging closer to Vietnam than to China, the country has managed a diplomatic two-step this year. As chair of the Southeast Asian nations’ group, it has projected neutrality in other countries’ disputes with China over the South China Sea.

Russia Isn't Pivoting to AsiaThe National Interest OnlineNews that Russia is strengthening its air and missile defenses in the Baltic, Crimea and Far East—and Russia's wish to preserve its global status—suggest that its dismissal of its so-called “pivot” to Asia should be taken seriously by the United ...and more »

Pro-Russia TV station in Kiev evacuated after fireThe GuardianThe TV station is regarded by many Ukrainians as having pro-Russia bias, and has been the target of several protests due to its alleged support of Kremlin policy in Ukraine. A conflict in eastern Ukraine between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian ...and more »

"When workers raise their voices for a fair wage and dignity in the workplace, they sustain the story of America," U.S. President Barack Obama wrote Monday in an open letter to workers across the country as the U.S. celebrates Labor Day. Labor Day became an official American holiday in 1894. It is observed on the first Monday in September. "At the beginning of the last century, American workers came together to fight for dignity and justice in the workplace," Obama said. "They stood up, marched and raised their voices for a 40-hour workweek, overtime pay, a minimum wage, and the right to organize for better pay and benefits . . . These hard-fought victories became the cornerstones of the greatest middle class the world has ever known." The president said if he were looking for a job today that would allow him to "build some security for my family, I'd join a union." Obama said "History shows that working families can get a fair shot in this country - but only if we are willing to organize and fight for it... That's why I started my career as an organizer all those years ago." While the membership rosters of labor unions have been falling steadily for the past 30 years, workers' benefits the unions fought for decades ago are now customary in most U.S. workplaces, including five-day work weeks, healthcare insurance and vacations paid for by employers. Many union members now work for local, state and federal governments in white-collar jobs, not in the gritty factories where the labor movement began.

At the summit of the world's 20 biggest economies in China's historic city of Hangzhou, U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are meeting with foreign counterparts to look for solutions to major global problems. Obama reached an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping on reducing pollution. His other talks focused on the Syrian conflict and U.S. relationships with major allies. VOA's Zlatica Hoke has more.

President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin are meeting informally on the sidelines of the Group of 20 economic summit in China. White House spokesman Ned Price says more details about the meeting will be released later in the day. The meeting is taking place in private. Obama's meeting with Putin comes as the U.S. and Russia are negotiating to try to reach an agreement to end the violence in Syria's long-running civil war. Top diplomats for both countries have thus far been unable to reach an agreement. Another likely topic is Ukraine. The U.S. has been concerned about growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The latest round of talks about curbing the violence in Syria have ended without a deal. A senior State Department official says Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov failed to overcome differences at a morning meeting. The diplomats have been trying to broker a cease-fire between Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and moderate rebels that would expand access to humanitarian aid for hundreds of thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire. The strategy has hinged on an unlikely U.S.-Russian militarily partnership against extremist groups operating in Syria. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the private negotiations.

In 2012, freelance journalist Theo Padnos slipped into Syria to cover its unfolding civil war and was promptly kidnapped by members of an al-Qaida branch. Convinced he was a CIA agent because he spoke Arabic, the group held the Massachusetts native for nearly two years before releasing him in August 2014. Now, Padnos is retracing his journey in "Theo Who Lived,'' a documentary being screened Sept. 30 in Cambridge. Its theatrical premiere is in New York City on Oct. 7, followed by a wider release. Padnos, 47, who has been living in Paris and Vermont, tells the Associated Press he's grateful to have survived. The ordeal not only changed his outlook on life but also gave him perspective on the Syrian conflict that he feels is important to share. Padnos is working on a nonfiction book, a play and a novel drawing on his experience. He wrote about his captivity for the New York Times Magazine shortly after his release and is trying to continue writing about the region as a journalist. " I had a real spiritual voyage, which was terrifying for me and my family at the time,'' Padnos said from his family's vacation home in Vermont. " But looking back, this is what life gave me and I'd like to take what I learned and turn it into some positive benefit.'' The film follows Padnos as he returns to places in Turkey and Israel that figured prominently in his 22-month capture. The film crew never set foot in Syria. Padnos reflects on his captivity on sets emulating his tiny prison cell and the room where he was subjected to torture and beatings. Along the Turkey-Syria border, he recalls the moment when his traveling companions instruct him to dash across the field and hop the razor wire fence separating them from Syria. It's a moment Padnos says he'd replay in his mind for months after. The trio of men had claimed they were providing supplies to the Free Syrian Army and offered to take him across the border with them. But they were actually affiliated with al-Qaida. They staged a fake interview, beat him and took him hostage shortly after crossing the border. " This is where I threw my life away. It's like a precipice that I walked up to and I actually jumped,'' Padnos says in the film. " Now I'm back in a safe place and I'm thinking why did I ever jump?'' Padnos also details a series of failed escapes, including one in which cellmate and American photojournalist Matthew Schrier managed to sneak out through a narrow prison window but Padnos could not. Padnos' mother, Nancy Curtis, who is interviewed in the documentary, says she still has mixed emotions about her son's release. During the ordeal, she became close to the parents of other Americans kidnapped by extremists overseas. Many of them were not as fortunate as her family, she says. Curtis and other family members, working with the U.S. and Qatari governments, successfully arranged for Padnos' release just days after the Islamic State beheaded New Hampshire journalist James Foley in a video. The family maintains that no ransom was paid. " I always clung to the hope that he'd come home,'' Curtis said. " But I also don't feel great joy and happiness. Probably anyone who has had a solider in the war who came home but knows others that didn't have similar emotions.'' Director David Schisgall says Padnos' story is a rare eyewitness account of life inside a jihadi group by an outsider with a deep understanding of the region's language and culture. Having spent years prior studying Arabic and Islam in Yemen and Syria, Padnos was able to build trust and friendships with some of his captors. Near the end of his captivity, he was given greater freedoms and even traveled personally with the then-high commander of al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate in Syria. "The real intimacy he developed with his captors was remarkable,'' Schisgall said. " It's a very important message for Americans to see these people fighting as complicated individuals who are both very dangerous but also very human.''

A suicide bomber wearing an Afghan police uniform detonated his device near the Defense Ministry in Kabul Monday, leaving at least seven people dead and 41 others wounded. Health Ministry officials tell VOA the dead include members of the Afghan army and police force. Witnesses say the attack happened as the victims inspected the site of an earlier small blast caused by another device that had been planted on the site. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says the insurgents were behind Monday's attack. Kunduz situation The Kabul attack came as Afghan security forces on Monday retook control of a key district from the Taliban in the volatile northern province of Kunduz. Area commanders say the insurgents were forced to retreat from Qala-i-Zal after security forces backed by air support staged an early morning assault on the district that the insurgents overran about a month ago. The insurgent group has not yet commented on the government claims. The Taliban has stepped up its campaign of violence and battlefield attacks, including heavy casualties on the security forces. The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, said last week that more than 900 Afghan soldiers and police personnel were killed in July alone.

Donald Trump is pledging that the government he appoints will bring sweeping change to Washington's culture. So far, that promise comes with a heavy New Jersey accent. Despite being passed over for the job of Trump's running mate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and an entourage of his closest allies could leave a lasting mark on a Trump administration, should he win in November. As chairman of Trump's transition team, Christie is building a coalition of advisers who will staff key federal government agencies and execute new policy prescriptions if Trump wins the general election. Among them, are two of his longtime aides, Rich Bagger, a lobbyist who helped lead Christie's gubernatorial transition team and Bill Palatucci, a top Christie adviser whose law firm has been showered with government legal work. "The chairman is the public face, sets the tone and ensures the transition has good connectivity with the candidate," said Clay Johnson, who served as executive director of George W. Bush's transition team in 2000. The team also includes Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner — a New Jersey native — along with some experienced government officials such as Jaime Burke, who was the personnel director for the Romney transition team in 2012 and a White House liaison to Health and Human Services under George W. Bush. Christie is also hosting a transition team fundraiser in New Jersey later this month, promising to give an inside look at the team for $5,000 a person. Presidential transition teams lay the groundwork early since the winner is ultimately faced with the daunting task of readying the new administration in the two and a half months between Election Day and the inauguration. "You have to be proactive," Johnson added. "We didn't know how fast warp speed was but a transition goes faster than that. It's a mind boggling challenge." As a former presidential contender, Christie has taken some very public swings at his opponent-turned-ally. He's called the New York businessman "thin-skinned," and said Trump's proposed Syria policies are "painfully naive." Also Christie, like a number of Trump's closest advisers, brings his own share of baggage to the campaign. The embattled governor is still grappling with the fallout from a scandal back home, after lanes were closed on the George Washington bridge for political retribution. Lawyers for former Christie appointee Bill Baroni recently revealed text messages sent from an administration staffer to a campaign staffer that Christie "flat out lied" about his knowledge of the scandal. Christie, who has not been charged and denies wrongdoing, disputed the remarks and called them "ridiculous." The criminal trial against Baroni and another former Christie aide is scheduled to begin Sept. 19. Personal relationships have counted for a lot in previous presidential transition teams: George W. Bush tapped his longtime appointments director and chief of staff Johnson along with Dick Cheney, who chaired the effort, and Barack Obama's close adviser and friend Valerie Jarrett co-chaired his 2008 transition. In Trump's case, however, it appears to be Christie's relationships that count. Palatucci, a good friend of Christie's and a longtime adviser, is serving as the transition team's counsel and Bagger, Christie's first chief of staff who is now an executive at a biopharmaceutical firm with close ties to his administration, was hired as executive director. A former law partner and Republican political player, Palatucci is a longtime lobbyist for Community Education Centers and helped the company get contracts to house convicted criminals in privatized halfway houses. In late 2012, Palatucci left that job to join the law firm Gibbons, P.C. — which has been one of the biggest recipients of state contracts for outside legal work since Palatucci was hired. That includes more than $3 million to defend the state in a whistleblower suit involving an investigation of a Christie donor who received a fake law enforcement ID badge. That donor founded Celgene, the New Jersey biotech firm Bagger left the Christie administration to work for. As part of his lobbying job for the company, Bagger also accompanied Christie on international economic policy trips that many saw as precursors to his presidential campaign. They were funded by a nonprofit called Choose New Jersey, which is financed by business contributions from Celgene and other businesses.

Norway's state church has seen a record fall in membership after making it possible to join and leave the church electronically. The Church of Norway says almost 25,000 members left in August by using a new function on the church's website. Meanwhile, about 1,200 new members joined online. Even though the church has seen a steady decline in membership in recent decades, that's by far the biggest monthly loss in recorded history. By comparison, the church lost 8,588 members in the first seven months of 2016, before the online option was introduced. Still, church officials appear to have no regrets, saying in a statement that the online function makes it possible to "clean up'' the membership list. "No one who doesn't wish to be a member of the Church of Norway should be registered as a member,'' said Kristin Gunleiksrud Raaum, leader of the church's national council. "I'm very happy that almost 1,300 chose to join in August.'' The Church of Norway counted about 3.8 million members in 2015, about 73 percent of the population. Like neighboring Sweden and Denmark, Norway is among the most secular countries in the world. In all three Scandinavian countries, membership in the main Lutheran church is falling, while Catholic and Islamic communities are growing, mainly due to immigration.

Brace for a stream of digital leaks and shenanigans by Election Day. Whether it's newly disclosed Democratic Party emails or someone tampering with voting machines, this year's presidential election could come with hacking intrigue like none before it. Consider messages stolen from the Democrats by suspected Russian-linked hackers and posted online in the summer by the self-described persona Guccifer 2.0. That trove led to so much outrage from fellow Democrats that the party's chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was forced to resign. Beyond partisan embarrassment from those leaks, security risks to electronic voting machines have the potential to do even more damage. Compromised machines, producing faulty vote tallies, would raise questions about the very integrity of the political process. "Election administrators are trained to run elections, not defend computer systems,'' said Joe Hall, chief technologist for the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology. "The voting systems we use in many cases don't keep the kind of evidence one would need to detect an attack, let alone recover from it, without disruption or loss of votes." Donald Trump has already suggested trouble is ahead, saying in early August he's "afraid the election is going to be rigged." He didn't provide specific evidence. On his website, he asked volunteers to sign up as poll monitors in November. State-sponsored hacking Foreign state-sponsored hacking of the machines – or even voter-registration records – would also have practical implications, like delayed results or hiccups in allowing citizens to cast a ballot. "The biggest potential surprise in 2016 comes from the internet, and the potential for state-sponsored or hacker-instigated data dumps and turbulence that are disconnected from the campaigns," said Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer. Federal officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility that hackers, particularly those working for Russia or another country, will make mischief. Two U.S. cybersecurity firms have said their analysis of computer breaches at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee showed detailed evidence that the intrusions were probably linked to Russian hackers. The internet domains and registrants used in the breach of computers used by the committee tied back to a Russian hacking group linked to that nation's intelligence services. That same hacking group, known as "Fancy Bear," was previously connected to the cyber breach at the Democratic National Committee. Matthew Green, a Johns Hopkins cryptography expert, offered a simple solution to stave off ballot hacks: "There is only one way to protect the voting system from a nation-state-funded cyberattack," he wrote on Twitter. "Use paper."

Britain and Iran have named their respective ambassadors for the first time since 2011 as relations between the two countries continue to improve. British officials on Monday named Nicholas Hopton as ambassador to Tehran, upgrading his diplomatic role. He had previously been serving in a lower position at the British Embassy in Tehran. Hopton also previously served as Britain's ambassador to Yemen and Qatar. In Iran, the state TV on Sunday reported that the Islamic Republic appointed its envoy to London. The report said Hamid Baeedinejad, who has served on the Iranian team to the nuclear talks in Geneva that resulted in the landmark agreement between Tehran and world powers last year, presented his credentials to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Following Hopton's appointment, Johnson said he hopes the decision to name an ambassador will allow the two countries to talk "more directly" about human rights and other concerns, including the implementation of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. The exchange of ambassadors follows the resumption of direct British Airways flights between London and Tehran last week. In August 2015, and during a visit by British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond to Tehran, Iran and Britain reopened their embassies.

One year ago, at the UN General Assembly, all eyes were on Vladimir Putin as he prepared to meet Western leaders to talk Ukraine and Syria.

And over the past two days at the G20 summit in China, all eyes were on Vladimir Putin as he prepared to meet Western leaders to talk Ukraine and Syria.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

On this week’s Power Vertical Briefing, I discuss Putin’s diplomatic efforts at the G20 and whether they were successful with RFE/RL senior editor Steve Gutterman.

Enjoy…

NOTE: The Power Vertical Briefing is a short look ahead to the stories expected to make news in Russia in the coming week. It is hosted by Brian Whitmore, author of The Power Vertical blog, and appears on Mondays.

Vladimir Putin was hoping to have a meeting at the G20 with Western leaders about Ukraine that excluded Ukraine. As I discuss with RFE/RL senior editor Steve Gutterman on The Power Vertical Briefing (featured below), Putin was hoping to decide Ukraine’s future with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande over Kyiv’s head and behind Kyiv’s back.

After accusing Ukraine of plotting “terrorism” in Crimea, Putin pulled out of the so-called Normandy format talks with Hollande, Merkel, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. He then pushed for a joint meeting at the G20 with Merkel and Hollande to discuss Ukraine — without Poroshenko.

Putin didn’t get what he wanted. Merkel and Hollande denied Putin those optics, which would have been deeply disturbing for Kyiv, insisting instead that they each meet separately with Putin. The German chancellor and the French president then went on to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss Ukraine — without Putin.

It appears that Putin’s plan to use the G20 to convince the Western powers to pressure Ukraine to agree to a settlement of the conflict on Moscow’s terms has failed. And with Russia still massing troops on Ukraine’s borders, we should now keep an eye on what the Kremlin’s next move will be.

IN THE NEWS

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin havemet on the margins of the G20 summit in China.

Crimean Tatar activist Ilmi Umerov, who has been forced into a psychiatric hospital in Russian-occupied Crimea, says the conditions he’s facing are athreat to his physical health.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on September 3 that there will be a decision in both the European Parliament and among EU member states to grant visa liberalization to Ukraine and Georgia later this year.

Poland and Great Britain have announced that they favor extending sanctions against Russia.

LATEST POWER VERTICAL PODCAST

On the latest Power Vertical Podcast, Putin’s New Deal, we discuss how the Kremlin leader is changing the governing model he has relied on for the past 16 years and what this portends. Joining me are Nikolai Petrov of the Center for Political and Geographic Studies and Sean Guillory of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, author of Sean’s Russia blog and host of the SRB Podcast.

NEW POWER VERTICAL BRIEFING

On this week’s Power Vertical Briefing, RFE/RL senior editor Steve Gutterman and I take a look at what Putin achieved — and did not achieve — in his meetings with Western leaders at the G20 summit in China.

WHAT I’M READING

Moscow Targets Prague

The Prague-based European Values think tank has a new report, co-authored by its deputy director, Jakub Janda, and investigative journalist Ondrej Kundra, on Russia’s tools of influence in the Czech Republic.

Is Belarus In The Kremlin’s Crosshairs?

Kalev Stoicescu, a researcher at the International Center for Defense and Security and a former official with Estonia’s foreign and defense ministries, asks:Is Belarus next on Russia’s hit list?

Halya Coynash of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group looks at thecase of Vladimir Luzgin, the Perm-based blogger prosecuted for “rehabilitating Nazism” and “spreading false information about the activities of the Soviet Union during World War II” after he reposted a comment on social media noting that the U.S.S.R. invaded Poland in 1939.

Election Primer

Slon.ru has its State Duma election blog up online, complete with helpful infographics, polls, and videos.

Dozens of people have been killed in an apparently coordinated string of bombings across government-held cities in Syria, as battles that have drawn in regional and international powers rage throughout an embattled country carved into competing spheres of influence.

Syrian state media said at least 40 people had died in six suicide bombings in the city of Homs in central Syria, the suburbs of Damascus, the suburbs of the coastal city of Tartus, and the Kurdish-controlled Hasakah city. Dozens more have been wounded.

National intelligence director leading inquiry into whether Russian officials are attempting to spread ‘propaganda fodder’ to disrupt US standing in global affairs

US intelligence officials are investigating the possibility that the Russian government is attempting to influence the US election, according to a new report.

Director of national intelligence James Clapper is leading an inquiry into whether and how Russian officials may be attempting to influence the election and “provide propaganda fodder to attack US democracy-building policies around the world”, the Washington Post reported on Monday,

Obama becomes first sitting president to visit LaosUSA TODAYVIENTIANE, Laos — This capital city, with its wide, tree-lined French colonial boulevards and old-fashioned tuk-tuk three-wheeled taxis, takes its turn in the international spotlight Monday, as Barack Obama becomes the first sitting U.S. president to ...and more »

US and Russia fail to strike deal for ceasefire in SyriaJerusalem Post Israel NewsHANGZHOU, China - US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were unable to strike a deal for a ceasefire in Syria and differences remain, a senior State Department official said after their meeting in China on Monday.and more »